http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003519.html

 Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants

Moore ER, Anderson GC, Bergman N
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 Summary Skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby at birth reduces
crying, improves mother-baby interaction, keeps the baby warmer, and helps
women breastfeed successfully.

In many cultures, babies are generally cradled naked on their mother's bare
chest at birth. Historically, this was necessary for the baby's survival. In
recent times, in some societies as more babies are born in hospital, babies
are separated or dressed before being given to their mothers. It has been
suggested that in industrialized societies, hospital routines may
significantly disrupt early mother-infant interactions and have harmful
effects. The review was done to see if there was any impact of early
skin-to-skin contact between the mother and her newborn baby on infant
health, behavior and breastfeeding. The review included 30 studies involving
1925 mothers and their babies. It showed that babies interacted more with
their mothers, stayed warmer, and cried less. Babies were more likely to be
breastfed, and to breastfeed for longer, if they had early skin-to-skin
contact. Babies were also, possibly, more likely to have a good early
relationship with their mothers, but this was difficult to measure.

This is a Cochrane review abstract and plain language summary, prepared and
maintained by The Cochrane Collaboration, currently published in The
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008 Issue 3, Copyright (c) 2008 The
Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.. The full
text of the review is available in *The Cochrane
Library*<http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub2>(ISSN
1464-780X).
This record should be cited as: Moore ER, Anderson GC, Bergman N. Early
skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants. *Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews* 2007, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD003519. DOI:
10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub2

This version first published online: April 22. 2003
Date of last substantive update: April 03. 2007
 Abstract Background

Mother-infant separation postbirth is common in Western culture. Early
skin-to-skin contact (SSC) begins ideally at birth and involves placing the
naked baby, covered across the back with a warm blanket, prone on the
mother's bare chest. According to mammalian neuroscience, the intimate
contact inherent in this place (habitat) evokes neurobehaviors ensuring
fulfillment of basic biological needs. This time may represent a
psychophysiologically 'sensitive period' for programming future behavior.
 Objectives

To assess the effects of early SSC on breastfeeding, behavior, and
physiological adaptation in healthy mother-newborn dyads.
 Search strategy

Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's and Neonatal Group's Trials
Registers (August 2006), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (*The
Cochrane Library* 2006, Issue 2), MEDLINE (1976 to 2006).
 Selection criteria

Randomized and quasi-randomized clinical trials comparing early SSC with
usual hospital care.
 Data collection and analysis

We independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Study authors
were contacted for additional information.
 Main results

Thirty studies involving 1925 participants (mother-infant dyads), were
included. Data from more than two trials were available for only 8-of-64
outcome measures. We found statistically significant and positive effects of
early SSC on breastfeeding at one to four months postbirth (10 trials; 552
participants) (odds ratio (OR) 1.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08 to
3.07), and breastfeeding duration (seven trials; 324 participants) (weighted
mean difference (WMD) 42.55, 95% CI -1.69 to 86.79). Trends were found for
improved summary scores for maternal affectionate love/touch during observed
breastfeeding (four trials; 314 participants) (standardized mean difference
(SMD) 0.52, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.98) and maternal attachment behavior (six
trials; 396 participants) (SMD 0.52, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.72) with early SSC.
SSC infants cried for a shorter length of time (one trial; 44 participants)
(WMD -8.01, 95% CI -8.98 to -7.04). Late preterm infants had better
cardio-respiratory stability with early SSC (one trial; 35 participants)
(WMD 2.88, 95% CI 0.53 to 5.23). No adverse effects were found.
 Authors' conclusions

Limitations included methodological quality, variations in intervention
implementation, and outcome variability. The intervention may benefit
breastfeeding outcomes, early mother-infant attachment, infant crying and
cardio-respiratory stability, and has no apparent short or long-term
negative effects. Further investigation is recommended. To facilitate
meta-analysis, future research should be done using outcome measures
consistent with those in the studies included here. Published reports should
clearly indicate if the intervention was SSC and include means, standard
deviations, exact probability values, and data to measure intervention dose.


On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 1:45 AM, Karleen Gribble
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> I know I heard it at a conference somewhere....can anyone point me in the
> direction of research showing that newborn temperature is better regulated
> by maternal skin-to-skin contact than via baby warmers?
> Karleen Gribble
> Australia
>
>             ***********************************************
>

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